My Top Five from Seven Days in London

1. Rachel Whiteread Drawings Exhibition at Tate Britain

The highlight of the week for me was definitely the Rachel Whiteread Drawings Exhibition at Tate Britain. At last, an exhibition to get my teeth into (to coin a phrase)! I have always loved this building and regret that there were fewer reasons to visit it once Tate Modern opened. The Edward Muybridge photo exhibition was interesting too.

2. Happy Monday at Tate Modern

A visit to Tate Modern on a sunny, blue-skied first afternoon in town to see some works from the permanent collection. I was disappointed not to see an old favourite, the somber but serene Rothko Room, though the single of his paintings, which they had on display was a lovely one. And, for that matter, what ever happened to the paintings that populated the fabulous Morandi Room that used to be tucked away in the old Tate in Pimlico?

3. Early Italians at Sainsbury

Inspired by my recent visit to the Louvre, I made a pilgrimage to the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery to see the treasure trove of Early Renaissance Paintings. Duccio was a favourite, as well as the small but perfectly-formed Wilton Diptych.

I had forgotten how extravagantly the main galleries are decorated – vibrant Victorian shades of flock wallpaper, marvelous inlaid marble surfaces and ornate ceilings almost (but not quite) eclipse the much-loved masterpieces on display. Less colourful was the weather.

4. Primrose Hill and Regents Park

A lovely walk around my old stamping grounds Primrose Hill The London skyline from Primrose Hill has changed so much from the days when St Paul’s Cathedral was prominent on the city horizon. The economic slowdown hasn’t slowed preparations for the 2012 Olympics and construction work is continuing apace. Followed up a leisurely stroll across Regents Park, with some window-shopping on Marylebone High Street - what else?

5. N1

Couldn’t miss the chance to go shopping in the West End, though Oxford Street on a miserably rainy day was insanity itself. What was I thinking? Luckily, there weren’t too many reasons to leave Islington, where we were staying in the flat of a dear friend and many more reasons to stay local: the Almeida Theatre, the new-look Screen on the Green, yummy Turkish cuisine at Çanakale and lots of high street names for my inner shopaholic.

Taking a Break...

"Load up the caravan, Jean-Luc - it's time to hit the road!"

The Cath à Paris Traveling Cirque will be off to London next week.

Look out for my next post from Blighty very soon!

Les Journées du Patrimoine

Took advantage of the novelty of having a visitor to show around town – not to mention the splendid weather - to explore just a couple of the buildings, whose doors were thrown open to the public this weekend for the annual Journée du Patrimoine.

As in London and Sydney, every year Historic Houses and Municipal Buildings all over the city are opened to a keen and curious public and Paris is no different – except the scale of the buildings is slightly more ambitious!

The atmosphere was bustling and good-natured (despite impressive queues for some of the buildings) and the crowds of locals were quite a contrast to the recent crowds of holidays-makers I’ve encountered on my wanderings.

We enjoyed the exotic orchids at the Jardins de Luxembourg greenhouses, marveled at Foucault’s Pendulum at the Pantheon (not to mention gasping at the sheer grandiosity of the final resting place of all La Belle France’s Grands Hommes) and finally admired the extravagant decoration at Elise de Val de Grace.

On the way home we had to stop at Berthillion for an icecream, where we discovered that the Chocolat-Myrtille (Wild Blue-berry) Combo is real crowd-pleaser as well.

Relativity Revised

Guess it wasn’t mc² after all…

Gallery Hopping

Now that September is here, it’s been great to be able to see some of the exhibitions at the local commercial galleries in Paris at last!

My favourite was the small exhibition of Richard Deacon's two lyrical sculptures in this beautiful gallery space in the Marais.

More Photos from the 5th (Arrondisement)

Asphalt Jungle

While in the Marais yesterday afternoon, I noticed that this enduring image of Marilyn had not endured very long at all, fly-posted as she was on the side of a building - already gone without a trace, even though I’d taken this photo just a couple of weeks ago.

Here are some other classics, which I’ve snapped on my wanderings, which seem to have lasted somewhat longer, though with Paris traffic, it’s amazing that they’ve managed to stay in such immaculate condition!

The Place de la Concorde (pictured below in the Peugeot advert like no-one living has ever seen it!) is surely the ultimate Roundabout of Death (previous title-holders include Hyde Park Corner in London and the Stones Corner Roundabout near my parents' place in Brisbane), with at least six lanes of vehicles - push-bikes, scooters, cars and buses - all veering wildly, jockeying for position and all this on completely unmarked cobblestone roads and of course, to my way of thinking – all driving on the wrong side of the road! (Mercifully, they seem to have a couple of traffic lights installed these days)

I usually have to close my eyes, even though I’m only ever watching it from the relative safety of a window seat on the 72 bus!

Flotsam and Jetsam

Amongst a couple of other exhibitions today, I visited Anaïs Lelièvre’s installation on the charming lake in the one of Paris’ largest parks - Buttes Chaumont.

I’d wanted to visit the park in the north-east of the city, since I read that there was a spectacular sunset to be seen this time of year, with the sun disappearing behind the splendid dome Sacre Coeur in the distance. I didn’t make it for dusk unfortunately, but enjoyed the Flottement Cellulaire on my daytime visit instead.

I was amused to see several groups of Tai Chi enthusiasts, just like I’d seen in the parks in Hong Kong. I just love the idea of doing Tai Chi in a huge group on the Kowloon foreshore, looking over at Hong Kong’s spectacular skyline – though I think I’d like to start with the fans (they make such a great noise as they are flicked open and closed). Think I might leave the ceremonial swords until I practise a bit.

Rock, Sexe & Poesie

Went to the cinema today (the cute little Latina on Rue du Temple – love all these independent cinemas here) to see ‘When You’re Strange’, a documentary about the Doors by Tom DeCillo. I can’t say I know much about the Doors (the music is ubiquitous but the band was a bit before my time), but I‘m a huge fan of the director. ‘Living in Oblivion’ is one of my favourite films ever.

It was a pretty standard sex, drugs and rock’n’roll type biog, though it was fascinating seeing the original footage of the group performing and to see how charismatic Jim Morrison was before pyschedelics and booze got the better of him.

He’s so inextricably linked to Paris too! One of my most surreal Paris moments ever featured a group of worse-for-wear Spanish tourists sitting round the bust of poor old James Douglas, which marks his grave in Père Lachaise cemetery.

On my last visit there – more than six years ago – the custodians had put up barricades round the hallowed spot to protect it from the unbridled adulation of his fans (and I read that the bust was stolen in 1990! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/crudbud/823884656/)!

Apparently the Doors still sell over a million albums a year – who knew?

If it’s Sunday It Must Be Paris

Wow, sunny Sunday afternoons are just tourist mayhem around the 4ième. Luckily, this is a fact of which I’m only occasionally reminded, since – after the busy weekdays out and about – I've been enjoying spending the weekends back at the studio.

After this morning’s rain, I popped out to enjoy an hour’s sunshine and to find that, just a stone’s throw outside the quiet and calm of the Cité, the queues around the block to enter Notre Dame are almost as spectacular as the extravagant gothic architecture of the cathedral itself.

However, I passed by the sightseeing circus on my way to see the considerably more sedate Eglise St Séverin, with it’s elegant palm-tree columns and vaulted ceiling and which turns out to have some luminous stained glass, including some quite striking modern designs by Jean René Bazaine.

Also on display were some works on paper (a contemporary take on the Stations of the Cross) alongside a permanent collection of Rouault’s ink drawings, in one of the chapels.

I also visited the church of St Julien le Paurvre, adjacent to the Square René-Viviani – where, legend has it, Paris’ oldest tree (a robinier planted in 1602) promises a long and fortunate life to those who brave the pelouse interdit to rub its trunk!

Fourth to Seventh

On these long (late) summer evenings it’s lovely to hear some of the musicians playing, here at the Cité. In fact, music can be heard for most of the day - there’s a sitar player who usually takes the morning slot, followed by a soprano who seems to be practicing pretty intensively for hours each afternoon, an occasional lone saxophonist who likes to play at dusk and then the evening serenade by a doleful clarinet and an accompanying piano.

I couldn’t tell you who these people are or what countries they come from, but I feel like their music is an old friend as it floats in and out of our studio windows and echoes around the courtyard.

On Saturday mornings I go to a class at the American church on the Quai D’Orsay, which provides the perfect opportunity to wander past some of the grand city monuments, many of the most famous of which are conveniently situated between the 7th and the 4th Arrondisements.

This morning I walked further along the Seine to the Tour Eiffel to drink my coffee and peruse my Pariscope in the park underneath the tower in the blazing sunshine. The intricacy of the ironwork is breathtaking – from such close proximity one is really aware that it is a marvel of engineering (though its image is so ubiquitous here that it's easy to get a bit blasé about it!).

On my way home, I also passed admiringly by the façade of the extraordinary Musée du Quai Branly, which is always worth a photo too.

The Palais Royal

How have I managed to put this off until half way through my Paris Sojourn? I somehow missed the William Kentridge Egyptian sketchbooks that were on display last month, much to my chagrin. http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=39190

So I was determined not to be deterred again by the vast throngs milling around outside, each time I’ve passed by (at least the ones on the Tuilleries outside, perhaps there was no-one in the museum during the warm days of August?).

But today, together with a friend for moral support, I paid the former Royal Palais an overdue visit. We cut a rather haphazard course through an eclectic mix of rooms, on our way to the Prints and Drawings, but we were well rewarded for our efforts.

The hidden treasure that is the room full of 13th – 15th century Italian painting was a particular delight for me and reminded me that I must pay a return visit to the Sainsbury Galleries at the National Gallery in London (which also has an impressive collection of early Renaissance art).

Am already planning to go back and do lots more research there, as they very obligingly let you take photos and hopefully they don’t discourage sketching either (was it our imaginations or was it actually quite quiet in there after all today?). Am also keen to go back to the Sully Wing to see the Cy Twombly ceiling in the Salle des Bronzes Antiques. Luckily, I don't think thats' going anywhere, any time soon.

I have only relatively recently seen Goya’s painting in the ‘flesh’ so to speak and can never quite get over how fresh and vibrant the colours are and how free and expressive his brushwork, especially given that they are 400 years old.

And couldn’t resist including this Grumpy Little Miss by Velasquez, though I suppose I’d be a bit fed up too if I’d been having quite as bad a hair day as she obviously had!